Ah. When life gives you a mess, just use this curb roller to smooth things out. It packs and flattens and smoothes any thing it meets. Just look at how kludges of cement transform into a perfectly shaped curb after the roller gets its roll on. It’s like the world’s strongest rolling pin but for cement and not baking.

Some scientists believe we’re living in a new epoch of history, the Anthropocene, defined by how drastically humans have altered the Earth with mining, roadways, and other earthworks. Now, engineers are testing plastic roads that can be installed and removed incredibly quickly.

The fire hydrant. For decades, it has been feared by any New York City driver who dares to venture out without a tape measure. If your car comes within 15 feet of a hydrant, the next thing you know you may be at the tow pound, picking it up with a several hundred dollar bill.

Unlike nearly every other traffic light in the U.S., the traffic light up on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse, New York displays green above red. Why this bizarre reversal? Well, St. Patrick's Day is an appropriate time to tell this story.

As a big urban walker, I like to head for the hills. So when I stumbled upon this list of the steepest streets in the U.S., I just had to see what they looked like, and I started planning a trip to hit all of the most insanely steep stretches of our American streets. The scariest thing? People live (and park!) on them.

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has announced a plan to create a car-free zone along a 6.9-mile stretch of Manhattan streets on three Saturdays during the month of August. The experimental initiative, which the Mayor has dubbed "Summer Streets," stretches from 72nd street, taking a jog over to Fourth Avenue at 14th…